Tencent planning $70bn investment in AI, blockchain and more.

The giant Chinese technology firm Tencent, best known as being the developer of WeChat, plans to invest $69.9bn (500 billion yuan) into developing new technology and infrastructure. This will be done over a period of 5 years (so around $14bn a year) and will be spent on things like: cloud, artificial intelligence, block-chain, huge million-server data centres, super-computing centres, Internet of Things operating systems, 5G networks, and quantum computing.

Their strategy so far to raise capital for this endeavour is issuing bonds. So far Tencent has issued $12 billion in bonds so far with plans for $20 billion more. This investment may have been inspired by the companies rival Alibaba which is planning to spend $28bn over three years on cloud, AI, and semiconductors. According to research by Canalys, Alibabai owns around 46% cloud market share in China while Tencent only has 18% market share.

These twin skyscrapers are the Tencent headquarters in Houhai, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China.

These plans may be part of the Chinese governments initiative to invest in infrastructure to stimulate an economy still getting back on its feet after the recent corona virus pandemic. The country is also taking steps to develop its technological infrastructure as trade tensions with the United States increases. Last week more firms were added to the “entity list,”, which bans the firms from conducting business with American firms.

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